'Hey, look over here,' the singer's estate beckoned, directing fans to a limited-time video lasting 122 minutes, the exact length of the documentary’s first installment.
Michael Jackson waves to his supporters as he arrives for his child 2005 molestation trial at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif. His estate is now seeking to discredit a new documentary detailing claims of abuse that premiered Sunday on HBO. By Isaac Stanley-Becker Isaac Stanley-Becker Reporter based in the U.K. Email Bio Follow March 4 at 5:34 AM Two different portraits of Michael Jackson were available on the Internet on Sunday night.
After a $100 million lawsuit failed to prevent the documentary’s release on HBO, the entertainer’s estate resorted at the last minute to counterprogramming that showed the pop star at the height of his power, surrounded by thousands of besotted fans. Similar claims against Jackson were settled out of court in 1994, and a jury acquitted Jackson of child molestation after a trial in 2005. Robson’s testimony vouching for Jackson was a centerpiece of the defense.
Instead, his advocates were left to dredge up old videos of the performer, in an apparent attempt to remind viewers of the man they loved — or else simply to say, “Hey, look over here.” "I am voicing these concerns at the behest of the loyal supporters of the Jackson Family,” Charles Steele Jr., the president and CEO of the African American civil rights organization, wrote in a letter last week to the television network. “In the spirit of Dr. King and his nonviolence philosophy, we ask that you reconsider your decision to air this documentary.”
— Taj Jackson March 4, 2019 And even though the entertainer died before he could answer the latest accusations against him, his supporters wielded video footage of Jackson deriding those who criticized him. “He became too powerful and could no longer be ‘controlled,’” his nephew wrote, sharing an undated clip of the performer complaining of the backlash that had followed his record-breaking success: “Overnight they called me a freak. They called me a homosexual. They called me a child molester.
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